Research profiles the typical fantasy MMO player

by Samuel Axon on Sep 7th 2008 1:00PM

Fantasy, EverQuest II, Culture, News Items, Academic

Researcher Dmitri Williams and his team have been doing some very hardcore MMO-related research. Thanks to Raph Koster, they were given free reign with the whole of SOE's EverQuest II-related user statistics. They've produced the first of many papers, this one called "Who plays, how much, and why? Debunking the stereotypical gamer profile," which is completely and freely available online.

There are a bunch of interesting things about EverQuest II player demographics in there, some of which is surprising. For example, older players play more than younger players, and EQ2 players in general are physically healthier than the general population. There's a shocker! Of course, EQ2 arguably has a different sort of playerbase than something like EVE Online, or even other dikus like World of Warcraft. It's too bad we can't see the differences.

More studies are coming, though (but all of them from EQ2 data). Williams and his international team of researchers are planning to uncover information about gender differences and more in future papers.

[Via Raph Koster]

Source

Tags: academic, age, demographics, dmitri-williams, eq2, eqii, eve-online, everquest-2, everquest-ii, paper, raph-koster, research, researchers, soe, study, survey, world-of-warcraft

Reader Comments (3)

It wasn't really "thanks to me" -- I helped get it off the ground, but really the credit goes to the many EQ2 and SOE team members who helped the project out long after I was gone.

From the survey:

23: How would you rate yourself in terms of physical fitness?

1-- Big fat slob
2-- Not so big, but still a fat slob
3-- Pretty good looking and enormously strong!

24: How healthy are you?

1-- PLEASE CALL 911 I JUST COUGHED SOMETHING UP! IS THAT MY PANCREAS?
2-- I have alot of playing time because I'm always home sick! Win-Win!
3-- I have an amazing constitution and did I mention that I am good looking?

Honestly, aren't most surveys like this purposely skewed in their wording by manufacturers so that any information gleaned from it is not detrimental to sales and/or public relations?

All holy gods. The thing about BMI is /fascinating./ If I'm reading this right? EQ2 players and the general public spend roughly the same amount of time sitting on their backsides in front of a screen, but the EQ2 players are significantly skinnier on average? The average 10 or so hours per week spent in EQ2 instead of watching TV is enough of a difference in lifestyle to make them roughly 1/3rd less likely to be obese? That looks to me less like information about gamers than it does about the negative effects of television.